Fralin Catalog (6-21-23) - Flipbook - Page 18
American paintings, drawings, and sculpture and has served as our
right hand as we have purchased art over the past twenty-five years.
Simultaneously with these early art adventures, Cynthia took an
American art history course at Hollins University, which opened her
eyes tremendously to the world of American art and deepened her
interest even more.
In terms of collecting, we actually began to purchase art for other
people and for an institution before we considered it for ourselves.
Through our efforts to support Heywood’s sister-in-law Ann, after
the loss of her dear husband Horace, we facilitated the purchase of
four exquisite pieces of American art, one of which now resides in
our living room as a gift from Ann. This was our first major American
art painting, a river scene at Newburgh, New York, by Gifford Beal.
Later, we bought a piece of art at auction for ourselves by William
Gilchrist, which features a scene of three children and two adults
at a dining table. The picture is poignant, since we each have three
children and can relate to the intimate family moment.
To share his growing love of art with the community and to honor
the memory of his brother and his brother’s wife, Heywood decided
to build a collection for the Art Museum of Western Virginia
(predecessor to the Taubman Museum of Art) with funding from the
Horace G. Fralin Charitable Trust. This, too, impacted our future
collecting and education. When deciding upon the type of art to
collect for the Museum, Heywood recognized that in a small city
like Roanoke, we needed to build on our strengths. He shared the
hope of many that the Peggy Macdowell Thomas collection of art
from the Eakins family would be gifted to our Museum someday.
Thus, it made sense to Heywood to build the new collection around
American artists who were painting during the same time as one of
America’s most distinguished artists, Thomas Eakins. This helped to
firmly tie our interest in American art to a particular time period.
And even though a major Philadelphia museum was also heavily
courting the Peggy Macdowell Thomas collection, it did, in fact,
end up in Roanoke. Judy Larson, former director of the Taubman
Museum of Art, worked hand-in-hand with us as we began building
a collection to complement the Eakins paintings. Both now reside at
the Taubman Museum of Art.
Once the goals surrounding that collection were met, we started to
collect art for ourselves as well. It truly began one purchase at a time
and has included funny and unexpected moments along the way.
The two of us almost missed a wonderful Robert Henri portrait as we
were arguing over who got to hold up the paddle during the auction.
The gavel was about to go down, when we got our paddle up just in
time (much to the dismay of the underbidder).
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